Chrysanthemum
by TallestCora
Summary: A cute DATR one-shot. Dib tells Tak how he feels. Can be read on its own, but also takes place after "PSYCH-OUT!".


DISCLAIMER: I don't own Invader Zim, and I certainly don't own the moon. But, I did write this story! Chrysanthemum! Isn't it amazing?!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: A new update for the Adventures of Dib and Tak?! *LE GASPS* AMAZING!

This story can also be read on its own, just for DATR-lovers who don't want to get into my whole story-world...*Sniffs*...I'll...be fine, you know, just...!

Story order (so far): "Lepidoptera and Arachnidia" - "PSYCH-OUT!" - "Chrysanthemum". (Three more stories coming, sos stay tuned~!)

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**Chrysanthemum**

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Dib clicked the dialog box off and checked the weather report again. Nope, not even his dad's "Ultra-super-reliable Weather Forecast Service" application had noticed anything wrong. It was still "ultra-clear skies with a 17% chance of cloudy". It had to be at least visible enough for what he was hoping to invite Tak over for... He turned away from his computer to look at his wrist-communicator and paused for a moment in anxious worry. Was it too early? Would she even come? Would she arrive too late?! Pushing his nervousness down with a gulp of snot, he pressed the "call" button and dialed her number. A couple of seconds later, she picked up.

"Ah! H-Hey, Tak! Uhm, look! I was wondering, if, uhm...you might want to come over? I! Uh, I got something really cool to show you! Really! It's awsomely-cool!" He stumbled over the words of the invitation, but finally got them out. She just replied with a bit of a raised, non-existent eyebrow and paused before giving her answer. Making him seriously think that she was reading his mind, only, instead...

"Sure...I'll be right over." Then the line went dead. Dib sighed in relief.

Well, at least that part of the hard part was over...!

He fairly hopped from foot to foot as he waited for her to come, waiting nervously while he ran through everything over and over in his head, until he felt-! The doorbell rang, interrupting his narrated musings. He almost flew out his door and leapt down the stairs, tripping as he landed, and after removing his face from the carpet, he rushed to the door and ripped it wide open. "Hi!" He stated, heart-rate still pulsing faster than he thought it could. He grinned until she glared at him with her disguised eyes and he let her in.

"So, what is it you wanted to show-" Tak started, but was interrupted when he grabbed her arm and dragged her up the stairs.

"It's almost time!" Dib exclaimed as he yanked her bodily towards the second floor. She actually managed to yank her arm out of his grasp as they neared the entrance to the roof. Aside from the small attic, there was also a helicopter landing-pad built into part of the roof. A small door and hallway led up to it, separate from the attic's stairway, yet close enough that one could hear the other if they were both walking on each one. Though, with the house's sound-proofing that wasn't truly possible.

"Sheesh, excited much?" Moaned Tak sarcastically as they walked up the stairway to the heli-pad. Then Dib hopped up on the higher part of the roof.

"Come on, up here!" He said excitedly as he waved to her. She easily climbed the half-storey to the true roof and stood beside Dib. He seemed to be looking at the moon. Strange. It must've been one of his 'paranormal' things.

"Now what?" Tak asked with less than the usual enthusiasm. She had more important things to do than to be standing up here on the roof with this paranormal idiot! Sighing, she almost missed the next thing he said.

"Look at the moon! It's gonna' start in a few minutes!" Exclaimed Dib in an oddly hushed whisper. She blinked at looked up at it, but couldn't find anything interesting with this alien lunar satellite.

"Exactly how long are we going to stand here and stare while we wait?!" Tak sighed in exhausperation. Already this mission was making her too annoyed; why'd he have to go and increase the irritation-factor to 900%?!

Dib looked down at his watch and said, "In about...4 minutes, no-! Three minutes and fifty-seven seconds..." then he glanced over at her and looked somewhat nervously for something else to talk about while they waited. "The-the-... The moon has some great paranormal stuff about it! Wa-wanna' hear?" Tak just glanced at him, but then sighed, as if resigning herself.

"No; but I suppose you're going to tell me anyhow..." she said simply. Dib pouted at this. She was really not interested, but he was trying his best to be positive and to get along with her. Tak, on the other hand, was casually glancing at the stars, and wondering why the moon appeared slightly blue...it must've been the oxygen-nitrogen combo in the atmosphere.

"I won't tell you if you don't want to know," Dib insisted, wanting to know why she thought he'd be that inconsiderate...and then remembering what he'd brought her out here for. "A-anyways, we don't have to talk...if you don't want to."

She seemed to glance over at him, but as his gaze was down he didn't see her. "Alright...well, it is strange to see you so silent." He looked up at her again when she said this.

"Am I really like that?" He asked, more inquisitive than upset. "I mean, you're always saying how I won't shut up -but how can I when there's so much to tell you!?"

"Oh, really?!" She asked as she gazed at him with an interrogator's eye and said, "Do tell...!"

Dib pouted once again, as it felt like he was being treated like a little kid. What he wanted to tell her was what he'd brought her out there for; instead, he looked away, saying, "Well, I mean...! I'm not psychic! What, am I supposed to just...DO CHARADES or something!?" Waving his hands around in the air made him look comical; so Tak laughed at it. "What!? What's so funny!?"

"You!" She replied, pointing. "I just imagined you doing that in skool instead of shouting that Zim's an alien!" Dib tried his best to pout, but keeping a straight face was difficult when he got to imagining it as well.

"Well...!" He said, crossing his arms and turning around so that she didn't see the smirk playing at the corner of his mouth, "If I did that, then they'd think I was even MORE crazy!" She just laughed.

After a while of similar conversation, Tak asked, "Say, isn't it about time?" The prior nerves had faded away with a laugh and sarcastic smirks, so Dib hadn't even thought about it until she said something. His stomach tightened in knots again as remembrance flooded over him like a wave; he gasped and looked at his watch.

"Shoot! I lost track of time!" They both turned to look at the moon, which had just begun fading at one edge. "Come on! Hurry up and look at it!"

The moon was slowly being eaten away by a shadow that spread itself over it like a creeping cloak of blackness. Tak just face-palmed. "THIS is what you dragged me out here to see?! A lunar-ECLIPSE!?"

Dib just whispered, oddly quiet once more, "Shhh! You'll see in a minute!..."

They waited in silence until the entire moon was eclipsed by the Earth's shadow, and then...

"*Gasp*" the sharp intake of breath from Tak was all he needed to hear. Dib smiled widely and looked back at her, noting the pleasantly inquisitive look on her face, which he was sure would only appear on his.

"And THAT'S why I brought you out here!" After saying this, he grinned. "I figured, that since two of Irk's moons are reddish, you'd like this~ Then...!" He trailed off as he thought of something. "Hey, why don't you take off your disguise?"

"What?!" She asked as she took her eyes off the beautiful red moon to glance at him, incredulous.

"Well, it's not like anyone will notice!" Replied Dib, referring to her own assessment of Earthling culture. Then he added, "Trust me, your ship crash-landed in my backyard and no one noticed!"

Looking back up at the moon, she replied, "Well...only if you'll shut up." Then her hologram flickered off.

They stood there in slightly awkward silence; although Dib was the only one who was awkward and silent. Tak was simply silent; looking at her purple eyes reflecting the reddish glow of the moonlight, he gulped down an imaginary lump and said, "There's...something that I wanted to tell you..." He glanced away from her as she looked at him to reply.

"What?" His silence was oddly nervous and unsatisfying, so she found it hard not to.

"Uhm...uh, I...!" He fought with himself until he finally reached over and grabbed her hand. "I'm, uh...!" Gulping again, he found his resolve waning until he looked up into her eyes.

She waited patiently, now strangely quiet as she observed him.

"I, I'm...!" Now he found a breath and his words tumbled out, "I love you, Tak." He felt himself blush as he hurriedly gathered up what little courage he had left to give her a quick peck on the face. He wasn't sure where he'd kissed her; quite frankly, he couldn't think of anything as he hoped she wouldn't hit him or push him away or get angry.

Oddly enough, that didn't happen. She just stared at him with a look that he couldn't read; he couldn't read her mind to tell what she thought of it, nothing... A long couple of moments passed before she turned back to catch the last of the brilliant red moon. He felt an unusual sense of relief and anxiety, but she didn't react or even pull her hand away from his... Relaxing with this new ambivalence, he also looked back to the moon.

That lunar-eclipse had lasted an eternity to them; yet, when it was over, Dib felt like it had ended too soon. The moment when the Earth's shadow was slowly sweeping away from it, he felt his hand move. He looked down and found that Tak was trying to remove her hand from his. Nervous and self-conscious, he obliged and laughed accordingly.

"Well... The lunar-eclipse is over," Said Tak, observation replacing actual conversation. "I, uh...guess I'll be going!" Then she started to leave, almost hurriedly, hopping down to the heli-pad.

"Wh-where are you going?!" Exclaimed Dib; then felt stupid as he realized how obvious it was.

Even still, she paused a bit, face hidden from his vantage-point. "I'm going back to my base. Nowhere important."

"Oh, of course! Heh heh, stupid me!" Dib hit his own head as he said this, and she continued.

"Then, I'll take my leave," she said as she spun around to hurry through the door. He followed as fast as his legs would carry him, his stomach twisted until he felt that it was one big pretzel.

"Uh! I'll see you later, then!" He called hopefully to her down the stairway, not understanding why his stomach was telling him there was something wrong. His stomach was doing that an awful lot.

"...Yeah." Tak turned and looked at him for a split-second, "Goodbye."

"'Bye..." Dib waved as she continued her way down the staircase.

He felt like she was leaving, but not like she normally would... Once again his stomach told him that something wasn't right. And once more, he ignored it.

* * *

{*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*!} Came the insistent call of some alert at his computer. Dib snorted and yanked himself awake, finding his neck pulled at an awkward angle from sleeping slouched back in his computer chair most of the night. Annoying thing though it was, he finally poked the button and answered it.

"Yeah, *yawn* what's up?" He asked, still drowsy.

{Heya, Ding-dong Head,} came the voice over the computer. It sounded just like Tak's voice, so at first he thought it was her; but there was something slightly different about it, and what it said next confirmed his suspicions. {This isn't Tak, it's her base's computer,} the fact that it didn't display a picture on the screen seemed to reaffirm this. {Anyways, I'M not telling you this: but Tak's about to leave for around six months to attend a meeting with a Control Brain, so you'd better get your butt over here if you want to say goodbye. Once again, you didn't hear it from me!} The link went dead. Dib just blinked, confused. Did he really just hear what he thought he just heard?! It'd only been a couple of days since the lunar-eclipse -he hadn't heard from her since, but...!

He gasped and jumped up, his mind finally putting two and two together; In desperation he glanced around himself to see if he needed to grab anything. That done, he raced downstairs and out the back door, pausing just long enough to pluck a flower from a pot of mums on the patio. Then he hopped the fence to the house next door and stopped when a gust of wind hit him like a typhoon. Holding his arm over his face, he waited until it died down and he saw the source of the wind: Tak's cloaked ship.

The windshield opened and Tak poked her head out, the only thing visible against the cloaked ship. She seemed to pout, but jumped down and said, "I should've known I couldn't leave without alerting you...!" The way she'd said it was almost resigned; as if she wasn't pleased with anything that was happening.

"I'm- I'm sorry, I, uh...!" Mumbled Dib, then he looked down at the mum he held in his hand and said, "I just wanted to say, uh...goodbye..." holding out the mum, he stared at her with what almost could be described as "puppy-dog eyes", looking longingly and sadly into her alien soul. She just stared back with an impossible-to-read look before she finally replied. She looked at the flower in his hand with a slightly amused expression.

"Oh, alright," she replied with a sigh, taking the mum from him and staring down at it, feigning sentiment; she poked at it with her other hand, observing the white petals which faded to yellow at the center. When Dib spoke again, she didn't even raise her eyes up to look at him. She just kept poking at those petals.

"...When will you be back?" Asked Dib, slowly, almost afraid of any answer. Of one of the few times he'd ever been afraid to ask a question, and this didn't have to do with an odd hobo man's fat-rolls... Crazier things had happened. While neither of the characters thought about this, Tak spoke up.

"When the chrysalis blooms." Was her only response. There was no elaboration; after a few moments, her ship lowered itself and she hopped inside it, rising until it disappeared from sight.

Dib stood there, still staring, hoping to see it off, even though its cloak made this impossible.

Eventually, it was getting early; he wandered back inside.  
...

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There had been no news from Tak, and Dib worked relentlessly on some project in his garage. No one was allowed to see it, although he occasionally consulted Tak's base's computer for some things. Nothing was worth more to him than that project. As always, his sister might come in and bother him about what he was doing wrong, but on the whole he ignored it -until Tak's base's computer told him she was right! Other than that, he kept a casual eye on Zim while he worked at this new project.

It was not so easily completed, even with the blueprints of the original. It also had to be modified for a human occupant; consequently, it needed food and water storage. The outer hull had to be space-worthy and aerodynamic, and he even considered water-proofing it. The seats inside had to also be able to seat an adult, if necessary.

But of the most important -for right now- was the power-source problem. At first, he'd decided to use one of his dad's inventions; but the Irken technology far surpassed it. The hyper-space factor was another thing altogether. And finally, he needed the power-source to be small enough to actually fit inside the ship. So much activity and focus on this one thing, that one tended to wonder if he was alright in the head; or if he was just following in his father's footsteps, focusing on REAL SCIENCE!

But, his focus wasn't on insanity or science. It was just something to keep his mind on while he didn't want to think about how lonely he was. His focus wasn't on trying to get to Tak, whom her base's computer had said would return in about six months' time, and it certainly wasn't on trying to prove himself to be worthy of her. 'Cause even that seemed like a moronic thought to him. The truth of it all was, simply a case of space.

That feeling of a hole being left, with nothing to fill it. That was all he thought of when he could bring himself to think. He wasn't ever a sentimental person; the only reason he'd ever confessed his feelings for her was just because he needed to get them out or else he felt that his head would explode right out of his chest! (Quite the feat -technically impossible.) Feeling something wasn't an end to his means; rather, he'd much prefer to have something more important than himself to work towards, and he felt like she might've been the same way. Things like sentimentality could mean nothing to a moron who knew from the very beginning that those feelings were doomed to nothingness.

Still, he rather liked the idea of building a prototype based on her hand-built ship. He wanted to trick it out with all kinds of stuff, and maybe even fly out there to see all the planets and stuff! In any event, he probably wouldn't even been seeing her again...as -he felt- those last words had implied. The structural work of the build had gone quite smoothly, and he'd already picked out some outer panels for the engines. These panels in particular appealed to him. Just like Tak had her own symbol on the engines, so did he.

He ran his hand over the smooth, recently-painted, blue and gray metal. The very same gray face which had graced his shirt, now graced its surface, with some notable exceptions. The face was surrounded by four moth-wings. The top two were black, while the bottom two were blue with gray and black spots near the bottoms. It was grinning, with an evil-looking grin; yet victorious-looking somehow...

...And in its mouth...

...A chrysanthemum.

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...

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:  
I've had this idea for a story in my head for quite a while now, and I wanted it to be the kind that could stand alone on its own if it needed to, without any connection to any of my other story-arcs.

Consequently, although there's some vague references to things, I tried to keep from putting references. Example: I could've referenced the "PSYCH-OUT!" story-arc dozens of times; in fact, this story occurs A COUPLE OF MONTHS AFTER PSYCH-OUT, so it does make sense (in a way that I didn't mention before) that Tak doesn't communicate telepathically with Dib.  
But I did leave out mentions of their psychic-link and the fact that Dib has another A.I. on his computer, (named "Morimuta".) I also didn't call Tak's base's computer "Tolula", and I didn't mention what kind of moth-wings were on Dib's symbol. Anyways, I think that's about all...


End file.
